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Hellcat Squadran: Move Along
For around 30 years, Holly's been forced to live knowing she'd never see her husband, Sen, alive again. During this time, her depression dragged her down far, to the point where one of her drones, Perceptor, took notice and took measures to keep her from going too far gone. However, in 2303, the chance Holly'd been wishing for would finally come... Chapter 1: Final Reunion Sitting in her lab at Kaven Base, Holly continued work on one of her robotics projects. Ever since Sen died, the only thing she could do is work on her projects, bury herself in work...anything to numb the pain. However, then there's nothing to work on, or the other Hellcat Squadran leaders pull her out of the lab to keep herself from "working to death", all she can think of is Sen...and all that does is make her depressed, knowing she'll never see him again. Finally, she got the project on the table online. Looking at her pending projects, she was frustrated to find out that there was nothing left that needed working on. She packed up her equipment, left the lab, and headed for home. However, on the way there, she was intercepted by an old friend. "Hey, Holly, are you feeling alright?" Serah Farron-Villers asked in a concerned voice. "Fine. I'm just...fine..." Holly responded in a slightly-annoyed tone. "You don't sound alright...ever since Sen died, you've been a little off...just worried about you, that's all..." Holly, blinded by her frustration and restlessness, just huffed and moved towards home. Serah just sighed, shook her head an continued on. ---- Finally, Holly returned to her house. Entering the house, she didn't notice the figure behind the door. A shrieking of Binary sounded, startling Holly. "Perceptor! I TOLD you not to DO THAT!" Perceptor responded in Binary, "I haven't moved from where I've been. You're the one who forgot I was there..." Holly just huffed and shook her head. "What is it that is troubling you?" "It's Serah again. She came up to me and stopped me on the way here...It's getting annoying..." "She is your friend, Holly. She is concerned...and not without reason..." Holly sighed, and sat on the sofa. "You right...and she is...I haven't..." She sighed again. "I'm just still having trouble accepting that he's gone..." At that point, she broke down to tears. "I never even got the chance to say good bye!" Just then, the door knocked. Wiping away her tears, Holly prepared to answer the door, only for Perceptor to signal her to just keep seated, and went to answer the door himself. "If I wanted to kill her, would I have knocked?" asked Dinaya. Perceptor said in Binary, "It's Dinaya." Holly responded, "Let her in..." After Perceptor moved, Dinaya walked in. "Hey," she said to Holly. Holly could only muster a "Hey..." in reply. "Listen, there's someone who wants to talk to you...I don't think he should, but...yeah..." Dinaya said. "Who is it?" Holly asked. Just then, Dinaya cloased her eyes. A moment later, they re-opened, glowing white. Then she spoke again, but the voice wasn't her's...but was a voice Holly heard in her mind every day since the speaker died. "Hey, love." Holly's eyes opened wide, in disbelief. "S-S-Sen? Is that you?" "Yeah...sorry I died...again..." 'Sen" replied. Holly was just overwhelmed with emotion. Just then, Perceptor said something in binary. "I don't speak binary, Holly," Sen replied. That snapped Holly back. "Oh...right...he was wondering if you wanted to use a mobile holo-emitter to...look more like yourself, to make this less...awkward..." "Ok," Sen replied. Perceptor went and picked up a triangular piece of plastic, and handed it to Sen/Dinaya. Once it was hooked to his/her belt, Perceptor pressed a button on it. A moment later, a holographic projection of Sen was projected over Dinaya's body. "I guess this is easier," Sen replied. "And he was right...feeling less awkward now," Holly replied, able to muster up a small bit of humor. "How you doing?" Sen asked. Holly tried to find some means to lighten it up a little, but ultimately couldn't. "Terribly..." "Which is why I'm here. Hon' you need to get out there. You have family here you've ignored for the past 30 years," Sen said, worriedly. Holly began to tear up again. "It's just...the first 2 times...I was able to handle it...if only barely, but this third time...I..." Holly took a moment to regain composure, before continuing. "Everytime I am not occupied, I...I can't remember anything but you...and...there just comes times where I'm...I'm not sure what I'll do anymore..." Then, she realized how she must be sounding, before saying, "I'm sorry...just been a little...difficult for me..." Just then, Perceptor spoke. In his deep, reverberating, robotic voice, he said, "She has been having issues...moving on..." Holly made no attempt to disclaim this, forced to admit it was true. "Did you know Sasha died?" Sen asked. Holly just nodded. "How long were you with Elle after that?" Sen asked. Holly just remained silent. Perceptor answered in her stead. "She managed to be there for her until Elle became able to cope...Holly, however, became more withdrawn at that point." "Ok, good," Sen replied, at least glad she wasn't neglecting her family. "The others are about the only thing I have left now...and my research, the only thing I can do to force down the depression..." Holly finally said, "But...when nothing's left to do...and the others are out doing their thing...when I'm all alone..." She couldn't continue further. "Holly, if you remarried, I wouldn't exactly be offended," Sen replied. Holly, however, looked depressed more. It was Perceptor that responded. "I do not profess to know human emotion. But I know AI, and considering Holly entered creation as such, I believe I could still predict her: you were her first love, Sen. Therefore, my calculations determine there's a 99.657% chance that her feelings for you are still as strong as ever...Also equate in the factor of her inability to be there when you died, preventing her from being able to say her final good bye to you, that would likely factor into her depression." Perceptor approached, as if to keep Holly from hearing, while Sen could hear clearly. "But most of all, my calculations predict that what she needs most is closure." Then, Sen used the Force through Dinaya to freeze Perceptor in place. "Holly, I just need you to stop locking yourself in here." Holly sighed. "Sen, it's just...you've always been the best thing that's happened to me. Not the friends I made. Not turning human. You've always been the best thing that's ever happened to me...And, I just never want to let go of that...But when I'm all alone, the pain of you being gone...it gets almost unbearable...Especially since..." Holly couldn't continue further without breaking down... "Closure won't come with me, Holly. Closure is learning to let go," Sen explained. "I hate feeling the way I do all the time...but...I just don't want to let go of all the good times we had in the past..." "Don't let go of those...you need to learn that the past is in the past...and you can cherish it, but you can't let it consume you." Sen paused for a moment, before continuing, "...You know what happened when Elle did that..." Holly did remember: she turned into almost just a shadow of her former self...even ended up turning insane, due to her unprotected mind, during the Mirror War. It was only through shear luck that she came back. "Of course I do..." she said, sadly. Sen then replied, "Then you know that you can't be like this, or it will blow up in your face." At that point, Holly just stood up, but kept her head down, as if thinking. Sen didn't know what to say or think at that point. Finally, Holly managed to say, "I guess the biggest thing...was I never got to truly say good bye...been one of the things that've been eating me up all this time..." Sen then came up and took Holly's hands in his. "I'm here now," he said, smiling. Holly, after a couple moments, finally realized that the moment she thought would never happen had finally come. "I'm sorry, sorry I couldn't have been there to help...sorry this had happened...I guess...after all of this, I have a lot more to be sorry about..." "Would it be weird if I kissed you?" Sen asked. Holly responded, "As long as the hologram remains up...and Dinaya isn't aware of what's going on right now...Her commenting on it later would probably be awkward..." "Don't worry, she isn't," Sen replied. "Alright...good to know..." Holly said. Then, Perceptor, who was still held in place, but still operation, turned off his optical sensors, as if to give them better privacy. Sen then said, semi-jokingly, "By the way, not the biggest fan of the robot." "Well...to be honest, he has been one of the ones trying to help me 'keep my head'...well, ever since I created him..." Then, 'Sen' approached, and him and Holly shared one final kiss together. Holly felt as if all her sorrows began to melt, because while she knows Sen was kissing through a proxy (and a female one at that), she could still sense his presense...so it felt no different than kissing him while he was in his own body. "I've gotta go now, hon," Sen said. However, he did keep hugging her, so that she could respond. Holly sniffed, and, hugging back, replied, "Good bye, Sen...and thank you..." "For what, love?" Sen asked. Holly answered, tearfully, "For everything..." "Thank you, beautiful...Goodbye." Then, before Holly knew what would happen next, Dinaya then came back. "Holly. Why are you clutching my head to your...ah...you know..." "Oh, sorry...just...finally saying good bye to Sen..." Holly then cleared her through and backed off, while Perceptor stood there, silently, but his head bobbing up and down as if snickering. Apparently, he'd not deactivated his audio receptors. "Laugh it up, bolt-ball," Holly said jokingly. One thing that was noticeable was that, while not vastly so, Holly was mildly more pleasant than when Dinaya first arrived. "Uhhh...why does my tongue taste like the really crappy food rations they tell you to store in the closet...?" Perceptor just released a massive string of binary into the air. "Sen did tell me how to reprogram you things to turn you into vacuum cleaners..." Perceptor made no response...other than a subtle clicking from the Resonance Blaster on his arm. However, Holly just broke it up. "Come on, let's all just settle down here..." Holly then sighed, and thought for a bit...before saying, "I think I might need some time off...going to go talk to Leinad about it...Perceptor?" The drone nodded, and readied to follow her. Before leaving, Holly said, "Dinaya...thank you for helping me be able to talk to him...one last time..." "No problem. Thanks for the...whatever..." Dinaya responded, as Holly left the house. Chapter 2: Departure IceBite was sorting through paper work on his desk. Even after the decentralization of Hellcat Squadran leadership over 20 years ago, he still had much paper work to do. Just then, however, he received a knock on his door. "Come in," he replied. Into the room came Holly, escorted by her drone Perceptor. "Oh, Holly, is there something you needed?" "Yes...I just...I need some time off, if that's not too much to ask..." IceBite seemed mildly confused. "You do remember you're now the same rank as me now, right? You don't need my permission to take time off. Furthermore, why is it that you need time off? From what I recall, you've been working non-stop to distract from Sen's death...has something changed?" "You could say that," Holly replied, "Just need some time to think, maybe go on another adventure, you know?" IceBite responded, "Indeed I do..." IceBite thought for a moment, before deciding, "It's likely you won't be needed for some time...just try and not get yourself killed, we still need you here." Holly nodded, "Alright...I'll see you some time in the future...if my family asks, just tell them that I'm taking some time to myself..." "Will do..." IceBite said, nodding, "See you around...and be safe..." ---- Holly was preparing final checks on the DDS Stormblade, while Perceptor took his place at communications and Dirge was at tactical. She looked over the bridge, and then re-entered thought. Again, her thoughts went to Sen. While she became depressed for a moment, she remembered a couple hours ago, and was comforted by the fact she was able to say good bye to him. "Stardock reporting the all clear, we can leave anytime," Perceptor spoke in Binary. Holly nodded. "Launch." Then, the ship began to rise off the ground, although those inside couldn't tell, due to how smoothly it did so. As the ship ascended through the atmosphere, Holly continued thinking. Once the ship was in orbit, the helmsdrone asked, "What course should we set?" Holly thought for a moment, before responding, "Take us to the border of Coalition space...less chance of being bothered by things here there..." "Right away," the drone replied. Soon, the ship opened a hyperspace jump point, which the Stormblade flew into. Chapter 3: Into the Abyss In Hyperspace near the Ahemait System, 1 week later The Nod Dreadnought Enlightened drifted through hyperspace, with its destroyer escorts the Cairo and Sarajevo at its side. The commander of the Nod vessel observed his most recent prize: a techno-organic girl he recovered from stasis on an unknown ship. He had scientists scanning the girl over, trying to discover what potential she could have in helping or enhancing Nod. As of yet, the girl remained silent, scanning them with large, emotionless, orange eyes. Her face betrayed no emotion, but it was clear she did not appreciate the situation she was in. However, the Nod Commander did not care about the comfort of the organism: its survival, maybe, but not its comfort. What he cared about was making sure he got the organism back to a lab for study. Maybe, the commander thought, if he could get the organism back to base, he could probably get a promotion to a higher rank, or, Kane willing, probably a place in Kane's inner circle. As these thoughts swam through the commander's head, one of his subordinates suddenly warned, "Sir, hyperspace storm ahead!" Before the commander could give the order to drop out of Hyperspace, the storm hit, throwing the ship out of hyperspace and damaging it. Once the ship was out, the commander ordered the fleet to report in. Fortunately, both the Cairo and Sarajevo were intact. However, the Enlightened was damaged, which means it'd take several hours to repair the FTL drive. The commander gave the order to expedite repairs. He was gonna get this girl to Nod...by any means necessary... ---- Sulimat System It's been one week since Holly left Earth for her time on her own. To get away from all the troubles of being in guarded Coalition space, Holly took the Stormblade to the edge of Coalition Space. Throughout the week, she'd taken her ship and did various things, from raiding small AoUD infiltrator posts to protecting Coalition border convoys, and such. Such small actions gave Holly a sense of self-appreciation, as she always felt glad to be of assistance. As the group watched a small convoy of transports leave a system formerly filled with scattered Imperial Interdictor Fleets, Perceptor reported something on sensors. "Holly, unknown ship on sensors. It appears to be derelict." "On main viewer," Holly commanded. On the viewscreen, the image of a large black ship appeared. The vessel appeared to be ancient, as if it'd been resting here thousands of years. However, it appeared recently disturbed. "Prepare a team. We're heading aboard," Holly ordered. ---- The team, consisting of Holly in her MJOLNIR Armor, Perceptor, Dirge, and Dirge's Seekers, arrived on the derelict ship, armed and ready to encounter a Nod ambush...only it never came. Once the team ascertained that their entry way was safe, they quickly, but cautiously, made their way further into the ship. Along the way, signs of disturbance readily made themselves known as they passed through. The team split into groups of 5, Holly, Perceptor, and Dirge leading 4 Seekers in one, and the rest consisting of 5 Seekers each. Soon, the team found themselves in a massive room, with multiple racks, large enough to hold larger-than-man-sized cargo pods on them. The team spread out, searching the room. However, mid-way through the search, one of the Seekers called out, "Nod signature!" All the Seekers in the room aimed their particle weapons at the spot where the Seeker called from...revealing a piece of Nod equipment, which, in Nod's haste to leave, was still online. "Looks to be abandoned," Holly said, "Still, keep an eye out-" "Holly," Perceptor then spoke out in binary. He directed Holly's attention to a device he was analyzing: it looked like a stasis pod, that had the hatch split down the middle, and peeled open like a banana. "It looks like whatever was in this stasis pod was what Nod was after..." Holly analyzed. "Or whoever..." Perceptor corrected, "These racks appear to be for life form stasis pods, and this pod is the proper size for a human-sized life form." "But why would Nod raid a derelict just for a single person?" Holly asked. Then, she remembered: Natalia, who was created originally as a super soldier; Selen, who was made as a sleeper agent by Nod; NYRA, another product of Nod's experimentation with life for war; and finally, Siran, augmented by Nod as a test subject for a new super soldier program. What if this unknown individual, that Nod found on stasis here... "Signal the other teams and return to the Stormblade," Holly commanded. Before Dirge could ask, she hailed the ship. "Begin scans to see if you can find which way Nod entered Hyperspace, they took something, or someone, from this ship, and I think it has to do with their super soldier projects again. Let's get moving!" ---- Ahemait System, planet Ahemait III, 2 hours later The Enlightened was in geosynchronous orbit over the 3rd planet in the system, a small colony world with large quantities of Tiberium on the surface. The world had no real population, other than survivors of the Tiberium infestation, but structures on the planet lead the commander to assume that it was some kind of cataclysmic event that lead to the Tiberium arriving here. Any other time, the commander would have ordered the planet taken in the name of Nod, but this wasn't "any other time"... The repairs on the Enlightened were progressing, slowly but surely. The commander, however, didn't think they were progressing fast enough: for all they knew, someone might have discovered what they were up to, and were intercepted...or worse, if pirates found them and made the prize completely unrecoverable. As the repairs continued, however, soon a hyperspace signature began rapidly closing on the group. "Sir...Hellcat Squadran IFF confirmed: configuration unknown, but matching field observations of the DDS Stormblade..." "Damn...tell the escorts to ready themselves...We CAN'T let them get this girl!" As the fleet gathered around the Enlightened, the Stormblade dropped out of hyperspace, LR-DC13s surrounding it. Onboard the Stormblade, Holly looked at the battle map, Perceptor reporting (in binary) the results of the scans of the fleet. "Unknown biosigns onboard the enemy Ascendant class Dreadnought. These might be the person that the Nod crews kidnapped from the unknown sleeper ship." "Then that's it then. Our goal is to run the Dreadnought to ground, then engage them on land." Dirge then questioned, "Why not just board the ship, and take the girl that way?" "Because the ship could just easily escape while we're boarding it, with any number of us onboard. If we can drive the dreadnought into the atmosphere and have it crash into the planet, we can prevent them from escaping while we siege the ship." "Oh, well, in that case, makes perfect sense..." "Alright...let's move! Engage the enemy destroyers and dreadnought!" Chapter 4: Smash and Stab The first clash was between Holly's LR-DC13s and the Nod Stingers. Both groups of fighters slammed full force into each other, creating a massive furball. As more fighters were destroyed on both sides, a pattern emerged: the trained and tempered AIs commanding the drones of Holly's forces, which returned to the command vessel when their host ship was destroyed, were able to destroy more Nod vessels...in number...However, the Nod fighters were more numerous, and for every one destroyed, 3 more took its place. Holly realized she had to move the Stormblade in against the enemy dreadnought, and fast. Finally, Dirge, from the tactical console, reported a break in the furball, just big enough for the Stormblade to fly through. However, the way the battle was going, the opening wouldn't remain open for long. Holly gave the order to move through as quickly as possible, shields at maximum. As the Stormblade rushed the enemy fighters, they began to take notice of the new ship and redirected their attacks on it. However, the LR-DC13s took notice and moved to protect their mothership, and soon the ship's own Energon Point Defense Cannons joined the fray, cutting Nod Stinger and Marauder fighters to ribbons. Once clear of the furball, the Stormblade beelined for the Ascendant class Dreadnought. However, the ship's 2 Scorpion class Destroyer escorts attempted to interfere. The Stormblade's deadly proton beam weapons easily left the destroyers floating through space, dead in the water. The Ascendant class attempted to rotate itself, but the damage it sustained in the hyperspace storm was severe: the Stormblade was on top of it before it could fire. The ship slowed down, and, using its shields as a buffer, rammed the dreadnought. ---- The Nod commander saw what was happening before it occurred. He ordered the ship's engines to fire up quickly, but was unable to prevent the Hellcat Squadran vessel from hitting his ship. Due to the speed the ship was moving at, it wasn't disintegrated on impact, nor did it cause severe damage to his ship: it was only shaken up some, himself, the scientists, and the girl were knocked to the ground when the ship hit. He then noticed that his ship was beginning to budge, moving out of orbit and towards the planet. He ordered engines to be brought online, despite the claims that the spikes and horns of the HS ship would tear them to shreads. ---- The dreadnought had superior mass, but the Stormblade had powerful engines: just powerful enough to begin moving the ship to the planet below. However, not long after, the Ascendant class dreadnought's engines came online, trying to pull itself away from the Stormblade. In response, Holly ordered the ship's engines to be neutralized. The Stormblade opened fire with Proton Beams at that, the unshielded dreadnought's engines sheered right off the ship. With that, the dreadnought was helpless as it tumbled towards the planet below. Holly, however, then ordered Tractor Beams activated, to slow the ship's descent: while she wanted to drive the ship aground, she didn't want whoever Nod was trying to get away with injured...or killed... Eventually, the dreadnought crash-landed, broken, but scans showed that most of the ship's crew, and the source of the unknown biosigns, survived impact, despite severe damage to the ship's main systems...although with its engines sheered off, it was never gonna fly again anyways. Finally, Holly asked, "Any Coalition task forces nearby? Particulalry Scrin, with all this Tiberium here..." "Yes: a Scrin Harvester Fleet is nearby, searching for a Tiberium-rich planet rumored to be in the area..." "Hail them, tell them we found what they've been looking for...but tell them they need to help us secure it first..." Chapter 5: The Prize The commander of the Enlightened looked around the bridge of his now-destroyed ship. He located members of his crew, dusting themselves off, and (he sighed with relief) the girl from the sleeper ship was also alive, although, due to her restraints, was unable to get up off the deck. "Report!" the commander called. One of his officers went to a working console and reported, "Most systems offline...even if we still had our engines, we'll never be getting this ship off this planet...the MCV is still operational...we might be able to build up a base and signal the rest of the Alliance...not like it could do us any good: that Hellcat Squadran vessel could just bomb us from orbit..." "Not so," the commander replied, "If they wanted to destroy us, they wouldn't have slowed our descent...they want something from us..." Then, he looked at the girl. "And I have an idea of what it is...Prepare the MCV, we're setting up a base now..." ---- Holly's forces landed on the far side of the valley from the crashed dreadnought, and it took her little time to set up her command center. It was set upon a large hill, overlooking the valley that the Nod ship crashed in. Already, her transporter pad was bringing drones from orbit, and her war factory was cranking out automated mechs. Not long after, the Scrin soon arrived: Traveler-59 and Standard Scrin Forces landing where they'd cover the 2 open flanks of Holly's base. Holly's forces then advanced into an abandoned town in the center of the valley, surrounding a massive EMP weapon. Her forces set up several bunkers across the ruined town, and several facilities were constructed there, creating a forward command center. When Holly finally reached the forward command center, the Nod Black Hand Forces that set up on the opposite ridgeline from Holly's main base were already assaulting the forward command area. Her Railgun Assault Walkers were already moving to defend, firing on the enemy units, but the Black Hand Purifiers, flamethrower-toting armored brothers to the Avatar, were slicing through the enemy units. When she finally reached the LR-DC11 in charge of the base, it said, "Ma'am, good to see you here: these Purifiers are cutting through the defensive lines. We can't push into the enemy base this way: we'll need to cut through one of the enemy's flanks to get inside." "Shoot, that'll take too long," Holly replied, "We have to cut into these forces..." "But how, ma'am? The enemy forces are too strong, and we're barely holding the line here!" Holly began thinking, looking around. She'd just finished technomancing some equipment for the base, so she needed to rest her powers in that department. She then noticed her ship, and the EMP Generator, and had an idea. ---- Holly's forces collected some distance behind the generator, keeping it between them and the enemy. Holly's ship had the capability of unleashing EMP attacks on the enemy, so they didn't need the generator...Nod on the other hand... The enemy came around the ship, but as they targeted Holly's forces, Holly's forces used targeting lasers on the EMP Generator. This confused the Nod Forces...until they were set upon by Assault Concussion Missiles. The missiles blasted the Nod Force and the EMP Generator, while fortunately not damaging the surrounding area. As the automated mechs swept up what remained, Holly rhetorically asked the LR-DC11 that was leading the base, "How's that for battlefield improvision?" as she and the LR-DC10s advanced with the mechs. The forces were next stopped by the Nod defenses. Holly's forces were, again, at a stand still, until reinforcements, in the form of the Scrin Forces, having eliminated their counterparts, came to their aid. With the firepower of 2 Scrin Eradicator Hexapods on their side, Holly's forces cracked the defensive line open. Next was the tricky part: in the center of the base was the hulk of the Ascendant Dreadnought, where the Construction Yard would normally be. That was her target: board the ship and recover...whatever Nod obtained from that derelict ship. But first, she had to get through the base, no simple feat in and of itself. Holly looked around. She only had her disc blades, lightsaber, her wrist computer, and one of her pistols with her, and she had to go through the enemy base. Then noticing the base's Secret Shrine, and remembering the Shadow equipment that those structures usually held, Holly had an idea... ---- The ship's alarm went off, as the Nod Commander, the bridge crew, and their prisoner made their way through the ship, trying to escape. The signal was sent off, and the Nod fleet would be there soon. They just had to hold out until help arrived. However, due to that alarm, the Nod Commander knew that the enemy had gotten into the ship, and were probably on their way. Just then, one of the soldiers from the battle called the commander. "Sir, we've just taken down Holly. She was attempting to infiltrate through the main command area, but our forces took her down." "Good work, hopefully, when the fleet gets here, they'll be able to verify the-" "Sir, Holly's body just disappeared! Wait...it was a holodrone! This must be a-uhhh-AAHHH!" Then, only static occurred. "A holodrone, how-" Suddenly, a chorus of clicking guns sounded. He looked around, and the bridge crew had their guns pointed in one direction. In that direction... "Your people should really learn a diversion when they see one," Holly Lund-Urec, the 5th Commander of Hellcat Squadran, said, flanked by a pair of LR-DC11s. Holly had a pistol pointed at the commander, while the drones had their particle weapons pointed at the rest of the bridge crew. "So, a diversion, is it? You're much more clever than the reports described," the commander told her. "I think I'll take that as a compliment," Holly replied, in a serious tone, before demanding, "Let the kid go, before we're forced to take her from you." "Force? Hah!" Then, the officer raised his hand, and Holly and her LR-DC11s went flying. "Shoot," Holly said, "Must be getting rusty if I fail to sense a Force User." "Surrender, or be destroyed!" the Commander demanded, his crew pointing their guns at Holly and the drones. Just then, however, a loud screeching and vibrating was heard, as one of the neighboring walls began to vibrate itself apart. Holly took this chance to pull out her lightsaber and charge. Before the bridge crew could fire on her, the wall shattered, revealing 3 LR-DC12s. The Sonics Warfare drones fired on the bridge crew, while Holly engaged the Nod Commander. The commander pulled out a Phrink blade, and blocked Holly's Lightsaber Claymore. The Nod Commander took a swing at Holly, who rolled and struck a blow of her own. Again, the Nod Commander blocked and struck. Again, Holly dodged and struck. This cycle continued for a few minutes, while the LR-DCs and Nod Bridge Crew fought, and the prisoner just watched on, emotionless eyes flitting from one fight to another, watching to see who'd prevail over who. Eventually, a loud crack drew her attention back to Holly and the Nod Commander. The 2 had been separated by several feet, and the Nod Commander had launched a massive charge of Force Lightning at Holly...and Holly managed to manipulate the Force Lightning, and used it, using her control over the Force to sustain it, to create a shield of Force Lightning around her. First, the commander launched more Force Lightning at Holly, and, when that failed, then tried firing his gun at her. That also failed. "What the hell are you doing?!" the Nod Commander exclaimed, "How are you doing that?!" "I've been experimenting," came Holly's only reply, as she redirected the energy of her lightning shield, and unleashed it in a focused beam at her enemy. The Nod Commander was lifted off his feet and blasted backwards. Holly sensed him through the force...and she sensed him dead on impact. She looked at the bridge crew, and they were either captured or killed by the drones. Holly nodded and those bridge officers who were captured were led away. Holly, in the meantime, walked over to the prisoner. As Holly worked at the girl's bindings, the girl spoke. "You're not one of them," the girl deduced. "Right," she said, "My name's Holly. I'm with a group called Hellcat Squadran." The girl was silent for a moment, before saying, "Eve." "What?" "My name...is Eve...at least...that's the name I recall." 'Eve' sounded uncertain, as though she didn't completely remember. Holly helped Eve to her feet. Eve seemed off-balance, as if her motor skills had also suffered, not just her memory. "Don't worry, I'll get you to my ship. You'll be safe there," Holly told Eve, speaking to try to keep her calm. As she supported Eve, due to her inability to walk correctly, the LR-DCs covered the 2. Fortunately, the group made it out of the base without issues...but soon, they reached the battlefield. They were slowed by Holly being forced to support Eve, who hadn't entirely recovered, and were forced to take cover every time Nod forces arrived. Eventually, the Nod forces consisted of some of the units being sent to the front lines, including an Avatar. Holly tried to technomance the thing, but its constant fire forced her to disengage contact to protect Eve. The LR-DCs, meanwhile, tried to defend the group from the infantry. However, enemy vehicles began gathering and closing in. "Ma'am, we're being surrounded. We need to get out of here," one 11 said. Then, Holly went for her Wrist Computer, and typed something in. Eve chose that moment to speak up. "What are you doing?" "We should be close enough to my ship...that maybe...I...can...There!" Holly stopped messing with the device, and continued protecting Eve. Soon, however, a large wedge shape flew towards the group, firing blue torpedoes at the enemy mech. The Avatar exploded, legs toppling over. "There's our ride to my ship. LET'S MOVE PEOPLE!" As the Seraphim landed, the team made for it, soon getting under the protective field surrounding it. Once the team was loaded up, Holly disconnected the computer controls and took the ship manually out of the base, escaping the battle, and, once her forces completely cleared the base, gave the Scrin clearance to raze the base once they pulled back. Chapter 6: Secrets of the Ancients The Stomblade left the scene, as the Scrin Catalyst Beam obliterated the Nod structures, allowing the Scrin to take the planet and pick through the pieces once done. Holly watched it on the viewscreen, before turning, and facing Perceptor. The large drone produced somethings from its storage devices: a $100 bill, a few Sangheili currency chips, a Vehexa coin sleeve, and some Order of Mata Nui widgets. "Still should not get cocky..." Perceptor said, as he gave the money to Holly. "I've been at this for nearly 2 and a half centuries. I think I know what I'm doing," Holly said, "You have the bridge. Gonna go visit our guest, see if she's alright." Holly meandered her way through the ship, until she reached the quarters in question. Inside, the guest, Eve, sat on the bed, wobbling a little. She then looked towards Holly, with cold, emotionless eyes. Holly felt slightly unnerved by them. "Are you alright?" she asked Eve. Finally, a flash of emotion briefly came to Eve's eyes...uncertainty, it looked like, before shifting back to emotionlessness. "All things considered, I am in good condition." "'All things considered?'" Holly asked. "If you want anything about what I know, I'll tell you what I told those other people: I do not remember anything about my past." A brief, non-intrusive scan of her mind with the Force was all Holly needed to know that Eve was telling the truth. "I believe you." That visibly shocked Eve: it was as though she didn't expect to be believed by Holly, much like how Nod likely didn't believe her. "You do?" she asked, skeptically. "More or less...I might know a way to jog your memory...if you're interested, that is..." Eve thought for a moment, before giving a small nod. Holly then continued. "We found the ship, Nod likely found you on. We didn't do a thorough search, last time we were there, mainly due to me giving the order to mobilize once we found out someone was taken from it, but we recorded the location. If you're interested...we could take you back there." Eve thought for a moment. She didn't fully understand the motivations of this person, but she sounded like she wanted to help...She nodded. "Alright..." "Good," Holly said, nodding as she did, "I'll get my drones to set the course. Get some rest: you'll need your strength." With that said, Holly departed. Once she did, Eve finally let down her façade: fear, confusion, worry, uncertainly, all began to take shape on her features: she shivered uncontrollably, her face changed to a worried, confused expression, and the signs of uncertainty appeared all over. She eased herself onto her bed, and as she laid there, staring at the ceiling, she wondered, "Who am I?" ---- The Stormblade exited hyperspace, having arrived at the derelict ship, which was in the exact same condition as they left it. Holly had Dirge go down and get Eve, who joined them on the bridge not long after. After the couple hours of rest, Eve seemed full refreshed: she was now more steady on her feet, even. "That's where I was found?" Eve asked, emotionlessly. Holly nodded. "Alright...we'll head aboard, and see if we can re-establish environmental stability to the place, then bring you over, alright?" Eve just nodded in acknowledgement. "Alright, let's get moving." ---- After about an hour, Holly and her drones were able to close up most of the open areas, at least around the cargo bays and stasis chambers (as well as paths in between), and transported Eve and some LR-DC11s over. Once they made it to the stasis chamber, Eve took a look at her damaged pod. "This was what I was found in, I take it," she said, remembering how Holly described it. She began looking around, before finding a large, box-shaped device. "We found that before...we're not sure what it does," Holly explained about the device. Eve crouched down, to get a good look at it. She placed a hand on it...and just then, glowing lines appeared on the device, coming to a circular port on top, which opened and launched 2 drones. The LR-DC11s quickly armed themselves, as the drones surrounded Eve...and remained stationary, as if waiting for orders. "What the...What is that?" Eve stood up, the drones remaining level with her head. "I don't know...but something about them...they're linking with the cybernetics in by brain...I think I control them." After a few moments, the drones began moving in coordinated patterns. "Yes, I control them." Holly thought for a moment, then used a scanner device to scan the machine: the scanner shed little light on the device's function, although it detected something similar to Replicator Technology. Also, the device appeared to not be fully attached to the ship, meaning it could be removed and brought with them. "Alright...this thing appears to be movable...just gotta find a way to detach it from the wall..." Eve moved to look around the device. However, when she placed her hand on it again, the sound of magnetic fields disappearing sounded, and the device no longer seemed coupled to the wall. "Well...that was convenient..." Holly stated, before directing Perceptor their way, him being the only one there large or strong enough to pick up the device. "Let's keep looking around. Might be something else here to help you..." ---- The last of the things the group acquired was the ship's memory banks, which were written in an ancient language. It soon became apparent that, before this day, Eve had been in stasis for hundreds, possibly even thousands, of years. However, Holly began to recognize some of the architecture: a couple decades back, soon after Sen died, Holly had discovered an ancient ruin, made by a race she identified as the "Sobv'h". It soon became obvious that Eve had some connection to the Sobv'h, but what this connection was, she couldn't say. For all she knew, Eve was a direct creation of them, was a race augmented by them. For all she knew, Eve could actually BE a Sobv'h. However, due to how she was awakened, her memories were corrupted, and therefore, she could not remember much of anything, other than herself being named "Eve", as well as some basic tricks with her body's composite nanotech. The drones they'd discovered appeared linked to Eve, as though they were set there SPECIFICALLY for Eve to find. The drones came in various types, from attack drones, to shield drones, to even drones loaded with fats and nutrients, which Holly assumed had to do with the nanotech, which was proven when Eve learned how to shift her form between the younger form Holly met her in, which appeared about 10 years old, to an older form, which appeared at least 21 years old. Eve seemed to favor the older form, which did appear to be more powerful than her original, child-like form, although she admitted that the younger form "had its uses". Finally, with everything on the derelict ship that was apparently meant for Eve recovered, Holly set up a beacon, so Hellcat Squadran could find the ship later, so that it could be more thoroughly studied (as well as info on the ship's former cargo, and Holly's own findings). Chapter 7: Pursuit The Stormblade continued drifting through space. It'd been about 2 weeks since Holly recovered Eve, who'd been getting used to the presence of Holly and her drones. A week prior, Holly'd given Eve access to the unrestricted sections of her databanks, to allow Eve to catch up on what's going on in the galaxy. After a week of non-stop reading of the information from the databanks, Eve finally emerged from her quarters. After some searching, she hunted Holly down. "Ah, Eve. Good to see you. I almost thought you weren't going to leave your quarters," she said to Eve. Eve's face looked like its normal, emotionless self, but Eve's request, while blunt and to the point, also seemed to hold some desire for knowledge, as if something touched her in what she read, and wanted to know more. "Tell me about him. What was he like? What made him special to you?" Holly immediately realized who Eve was talking about. While initially depressed by the topic...recent events allowed her to recover from it somewhat. "He...was always there when I needed him. When I needed someone to talk to, he'd talk. When I needed someone to cheer me up, he made me happy. No matter what was wrong, no matter what was happening...Sen always found a way to make it better for me..." Eve gave a somewhat-brief, sympathetic look, the first full-on fully-noticeable emotional response Holly ever saw from her. However, she quickly put back up an emotionless façade, and continued, "What happened to him?" Holly did her best to collect the story: she didn't witness the event herself, but was told it by those who were there. "He...was killed...by a Sith that enjoyed sucking out the Force Spirits of his victims. One of Sen's apprentices, however, killed the soul sucker in question, however, and freed him...but...Before, there was always something left of him, something that would come back...but now...he's gone..." A hand was then placed on her shoulder. At first, she thought Perceptor was around, but it turned out to be Eve. "One thing I've come to see from what I've read, is that, one way or another, people you care about seem to return in one way or another." Holly smiled. Her initial observations of Eve showed her to be cold and emotionless...but what she said now, what she showed in her voice...her concern, her sympathy...It soon became apparent to Holly that Eve was much deeper than she let on. "Thanks for that...well, I have to get back to things on the bridge. Just contact me, if-" "Holly." It was Perceptor, communicating over the comm in binary. "You're needed on the bridge. Nod ships are on an intercept course for us!" Holly was startled by this information. "We're being pursued. I have to get back to the bridge." "I'll come," Eve replied. Holly at first felt that it wouldn't be wise to allow it, but, in the end, decided to just let Eve follow. When they arrived at the bridge, they found the ship being pursued by an Ascendant class Dreadnought and 2 Priest class Cruisers. Perceptor then spoke up, in binary, of course. "They refused to answer hails, and powered up weapons when they entered the system." "Not like I'd expect anything different," Holly replied, watching the Nod ships approach. She knew why they were here, and didn't plan to let them get what they wanted. "Where are we right now?" "We're near the Kapatose System. The star system's a binary star system with 13 planets, 12 uninhabitable planets. However, Kapatose VI is designated in the databank as a Class M-T." "Set course for the system, maybe we can shake them there," Holly ordered. The ship then dove into hyperspace, the Nod ships hot on their heels. ---- The Stormblade appeared in the Kapatose System, near Kapatose VI, with the Nod ships in hot pursuit. Eve looked at the screen, at the menacing ships pursuing them. She then watched as Holly had the ship taken into Kapatose VI's atmosphere, in an attempt to shake their pursuers. The Ascendant Dreadnought remained in orbit, but the Priests continued their pursuit of the vessel. The Stormblade continued descending, until they were some distance from the Ascendant Dreadnought. Holly then had the ship brought around, and ordered the ship's Heavy Proton Beams fired on the Priests. Both ships went up in massive fireballs, as 2 Proton Beams each struck the vessels. "That's them, maybe now we can take that Ascendant on, on even ground-" "Commander, sensors are detecting increased chatter on the AoUD battlenet: the Nod Dreadnought has called for reinforcements. Shadows and Galactic Empire vessels on route." Even as Perceptor said this, the flashes of starships coming out of hyperspace appeared above the planet. The bridge was silent for a moment, before Holly asked the sensor officer, "How many?" "At least 25 Imperial-V class Star Destroyers, 15 Shadow Battlecrabs, and in excess of 3 Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyers. The Battlecrabs are on their way now." The bridge remained silent. Holly looked at Eve and said, "Get somewhere deeper in the ship. This is going to be messy." She then returned attention to the situation at hand, and said over the intercom, "All hands, battlestations..." Chapter 8: "Less Talk..." Category:Stories